This application relates to magnetic disc drives and more particularly to a connector for a disc drive printed circuit board.
Disc drives are data storage devices that store digital data in magnetic form on a rotating storage medium on a disc. Modern disc drives comprise one or more rigid discs that are coated with a magnetizable medium and mounted on a hub of a spindle motor for rotation at a constant high speed. Information is stored on the discs in a plurality of concentric circular tracks typically by an array of transducers (xe2x80x9cheadsxe2x80x9d) mounted to a radial actuator for movement of the heads relative to the discs. Each of the concentric tracks is generally divided into a plurality of separately addressable data sectors. The read/write transducer, e.g. a magnetoresistive read/write head, is used to transfer data between a desired track and an external environment. During a write operation, data is written onto the disc track and during a read operation the head senses the data previously written on the disc track and transfers the information to the external environment. Critical to both of these operations is the accurate locating of the head over the center of the desired track.
The heads are mounted via flexures at the ends of a plurality of actuator arms that project radially outward from the actuator body. The actuator body pivots about a shaft mounted to the disc drive housing at a position closely adjacent the outer extreme of the discs. The pivot shaft is parallel with the axis of rotation of the spindle motor and the discs, so that the heads move in a plane parallel with the surfaces of the discs.
Typically, such radial actuators employ a voice coil motor to position the heads with respect to the disc surfaces. The actuator voice coil motor includes a coil mounted on the side of the actuator body opposite the head arms so as to be immersed in the magnetic field of a magnetic circuit comprising one or more permanent magnets and magnetically permeable pole pieces. When controlled direct current (DC) is passed through the coil, an electromagnetic field is set up which interacts with the magnetic field of the magnetic circuit to cause the coil to move in accordance with the well-known Lorentz relationship. As the coil moves, the actuator body pivots about the pivot shaft and the heads move across the disc surfaces. The actuator thus allows the head to move back and forth in an arcuate fashion between an inner radius and an outer radius of the discs.
The actuator arm is driven by a control signal fed to the voice coil motor (VCM) at the rear end of the actuator arm. A servo system is used to sense the position of the actuator and control the movement of the head above the disc using servo signals read from a disc surface in the disc drive. The servo system relies on servo information stored on the disc. The signals from this information generally indicate the present position of the head with respect to the disc, i.e., the current track position. The servo system uses the sensed information to maintain head position or determine how to optimally move the head to a new position centered above a desired track. The servo system then delivers a control signal to the VCM to rotate the actuator to position the head over a desired new track or maintain the position over the desired current track.
The actuator servo system control components and disc spin motor control components are typically located on a printed circuit (PC) board which is fastened to an underside surface of the disc drive. In addition, input/output signals are fed to and from the disc drive through the printed circuit board. A multiple pin connector typically having a double row of connector pins is mounted to one end of the PC board. This connector fits within a mating socket connector on a ribbon lead or a mating receptacle mounted within a drive bay into which the disc drive is inserted. In particular, for disc drive testing purposes, the drive may be installed into a test device having several drive bays. Each bay has a mating receptacle fastened at one end. A disc drive is slid into the bay and the drive end having the multiple pin connector is pushed in to mate the connector with the receptacle.
One problem that has arisen when conventional disc drive multiple pin connectors are used is that the male pins often become bent out of line and thus the connector cannot be properly mated with the receptacle. This typically occurs because the test bay has larger inside dimensions than the disc drive and thus the connector must be carefully aligned with the receptacle to ensure proper engagement.
Against this backdrop the present invention has been developed. The present invention comprises an apparatus and method for aligning a plurality of pins on a printed circuit board connector in a disc drive with corresponding pin mating sockets in a test fixture receptacle.
The disc drive has a base plate with a head disc assembly enclosed on one side of the base plate and a generally rectangular printed circuit board attached to another side of the base plate. The printed circuit board is mounted generally in a plane parallel to the base plate and the connector is mounted along one end of the circuit board. The connector has a series of pins projecting from a front face of the connector between opposite connector ends. An elongated guide member is affixed to each of the connector ends. The guide member has a rear edge and a front edge with an outer edge extending from the rear edge to the front edge. At least a portion of the outer edge of the guide member is angled toward the pins in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the circuit board.
A test fixture receptacle is mounted in the test fixture and has a plurality of pin mating sockets between a pair of spaced ends. The spaced ends are adapted to receive the connector guide members therebetween to align the pins with the pin mating sockets before the pins contact the sockets as the disc drive is inserted into the test fixture receptacle.
As the connector end of the disc drive is inserted into a slot in the test fixture, the angled portion of the outer edge of the guide member on the connector contacts an inner edge of a receptacle housing of the test fixture receptacle. This contact causes either the receptacle or the disc drive to move along the guide member to align the pins on the connector with the pin mating sockets in the test fixture receptacle. The pins then are inserted into the pin mating sockets to connect the connector and receptacle together.
These and various other features as well as advantages which characterize the present invention will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings.